Introduction
The modern human nervous system is formed by 100 billion cells. In the last 4 million years the brain volume in the hominids had increased a lot, so we can said that this is the cause of the evolution of man. In the past, scientist believed that the human brain dosen´t change after a person reaches the age of an adult. Since the last few decades until the actuality scientist keep progressing in the study of the human brain. This is how scientist were able to see, throw some studies, that the brain has a very flexible structure, even in adults, and that it changes a lot depending on the use of it and the activities realized by the individual. So, after understanding these we can say that the brains of monkeys that have evolved in humans grew while learning to use new tools.
Development There are three experiments realized by Iriki and by Ralph Holloway. I will develop these experiments which could explain and argue the idea that men’s brains evolved from prehistory through the use of tools.
Iriki made two of that experiments that contributed a lot for this big mystery of human brain. One of those experiments was that scientist passed a few weeks training macaque monkeys to use some tools to recover food that was just out of reach, and during and after that teaching the monkeys were exposed to a magnetic resonance imagining (MRI) to examine the brains. They proved that neurons trained to use the tools changes the receptive properties of the monkeys to represent tools as an extension of parts of the body.
They noticed some changes in the brain of the monkeys, while they were being taught to use tools. That experiment showed that some areas of the brain increased as the monkeys got better at using new tools.
In the wild, a monkey doesn’t use tools but when they are taught it appears that their brains changes during they learn new tasks. That could give us an idea of the human intelligence evolution.
The other experiment of Iriki was that they analyzed the brains of experts in a particular field and some no experts or experts in another field. They proved that the gray matter increased in regions of the brain that are associated with the activities that they realised.
Finally, Ralph Holloway made a experiment that was about that there are a strong degree of asymmetry that appears in hominids. That asymmetry is related to handedness and tools-use. So after this experiment we could suppose this asymmetry started to grow since prehistoric men began to develop the use of tools.
Introduction
The modern human nervous system is formed by 100 billion cells. In the last 4 million years the brain volume in the hominids had increased a lot, so we can said that this is the cause of the evolution of man.
In the past, scientist believed that the human brain dosen´t change after a person reaches the age of an adult. Since the last few decades until the actuality scientist keep progressing in the study of the human brain. This is how scientist were able to see, throw some studies, that the brain has a very flexible structure, even in adults, and that it changes a lot depending on the use of it and the activities realized by the individual.
So, after understanding these we can say that the brains of monkeys that have evolved in humans grew while learning to use new tools.
Development
There are three experiments realized by Iriki and by Ralph Holloway. I will develop these experiments which could explain and argue the idea that men’s brains evolved from prehistory through the use of tools.
Iriki made two of that experiments that contributed a lot for this big mystery of human brain. One of those experiments was that scientist passed a few weeks training macaque monkeys to use some tools to recover food that was just out of reach, and during and after that teaching the monkeys were exposed to a magnetic resonance imagining (MRI) to examine the brains. They proved that neurons trained to use the tools changes the receptive properties of the monkeys to represent tools as an extension of parts of the body.
They noticed some changes in the brain of the monkeys, while they were being taught to use tools. That experiment showed that some areas of the brain increased as the monkeys got better at using new tools.
In the wild, a monkey doesn’t use tools but when they are taught it appears that their brains changes during they learn new tasks. That could give us an idea of the human intelligence evolution.
The other experiment of Iriki was that they analyzed the brains of experts in a particular field and some no experts or experts in another field. They proved that the gray matter increased in regions of the brain that are associated with the activities that they realised.
Finally, Ralph Holloway made a experiment that was about that there are a strong degree of asymmetry that appears in hominids. That asymmetry is related to handedness and tools-use. So after this experiment we could suppose this asymmetry started to grow since prehistoric men began to develop the use of tools.
http://www.massey.ac.nz/~alock/hbook/brain.htm
http://www.essortment.com/all/evolutionhuman_rmow.htm
http://www.rikenresearch.riken.jp/eng/hom/6154